


A Time for Sleep

by JACKoatACEon



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Hotels, I just needed a happy team moment, M/M, Possibly Pre-Slash, Sleepovers, it's there if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 00:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4982323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JACKoatACEon/pseuds/JACKoatACEon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bad storm delays the team's flight out after a case. Dave and Aaron work out the kinks in the sleeping arrangements.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Time for Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Set in some vague time during season ten. I will still never be over the fact that Dave and Aaron ~clearly~ roomed together in that lodge in Alaska during "Exit Wounds", 5.21.

It started storming on their last day in Dallas.

     The team was down in the Big D to hunt down a serial peeping tom-turned violent rapist. The unsub had become unhinged, sloppy, and once the team had established the profile he was easily apprehended. But by the time they were ready to go wheels up, a heavy storm opened up over the city, stalling flights for everyone. They had already check out of the hotel, and when they returned to book rooms for the night they found that only three were available due to the delays. It was one of the closest hotels to the airport.

     “Well, at least we’ll save some room in the budget,” Aaron said, a hint of that rarely-used dry sarcasm in his tone.

     Kate and JJ didn’t bother to hide their excitement over a potential girls’ night. God knows they both deserved a little break. Derek and Spencer moaned and bellyached over the situation, but everyone knew that, out of all of them, those two would be getting noise complaints for laughing and carrying on too loudly tonight. And then there was Aaron and Dave; they exchanged brief “I guess that leaves us” looks as if they had both assumed the room arrangements would be any different.

     “There are two singles and a double,” Aaron said as he returned from the desk with the key cards in his hand. “I think we should be fair and draw straws, so to speak.”

     Derek quickly took first pick of the cards and he and Spencer made their way toward the elevator. JJ grabbed a set for her and Kate and followed close behind. Dave plucked one of the remaining two cards from Aaron’s hand.

     “Luck be a lady tonight,” Dave said with a smirk. Aaron sighed with his lips drawn in a tight line but Dave caught a hint of the corners of his mouth twitch upward.

     When they reached their floor, Dave almost made a comment to Aaron that it felt like a game show. _What’s behind door number 310?_  The other two rooms were spread out on different floors, so they might have already lost the game without even knowing. Aaron opened up the door and revealed a single queen-size bed. No bother, really. Neither of them were truly inconvenienced or made uncomfortable by the situation because they were adults. But still.

     A few minutes later, a text came in to Dave’s phone. “Looks like Morgan and Reid are the winners,” he said, holding the phone up for Aaron to see the selfie Derek had taken of him and Spencer standing on their own double beds.

     “Nice,” Aaron said with a small smile.

     It was at that moment that Dave realized that he and Aaron had just been standing in the the middle of the room silent up until the text message. Both were avoiding the inevitable, but was Dave Italian, typically stubborn, and would hold out on bringing it up longer than Aaron would. Then Dave saw Aaron take a breath and he knew that he had won.

     “I’ll sleep in the chair,” he said.

     They both looked over at it then. It was a nice chair as far as hotel chairs went, but it was no La-Z-Boy. It was a stiff-cushioned desk chair with no reclining capabilities, and Dave knew that Aaron would never get any sleep in that damned thing.

     “You don’t have to put yourself through that torture for my sake,” Dave insisted.

     Aaron looked at the bed and then to Dave. “No, it’s fine.”

     He was doing the polite Aaron Hotchner thing, the white knight routine that made Dave smile as much as it frustrated him. Except tonight it was less of “coming to the rescue” and more “taking one for the team”. Sure, neither would mind sleeping in the same bed—again, they were adults, _damnit_ —but neither of them wanted to be the first to admit it.

     “Suit yourself,” Dave said with a shrug.

     After a couple hours of case discussion and BS crossing several unrelated subjects, they decided to call it a night. Aaron got a pillow off of the bed and tried to make himself comfortable. With his feet propped up on the side of the bed and his arms folded tightly across his chest, Aaron was the picture of pitiful, and Dave couldn’t help but feel guilty.

     “Hotch, are you—”

     “Yes, Dave. I’m sure.”

     Dave thought, _well, hey, I tried_ , and finally got under the covers. The bed wasn’t as comfortable as some of the beds in other places he’s stayed, but he knew that come morning he’d be in a lot better shape than Aaron. He didn’t even want to begin to imagine the sore back and stiff neck that Aaron would be feeling the next morning. At around one, Dave woke up to the sound of relentless thunder and flashing lightning. Apparently the storm still hadn't let up. Dave spotted the empty chair to his left and then saw Aaron standing in front of the window, backlit every so often by the lightning.

     Dave sat up. “Did you sleep any?”

     Aaron flinched at the unexpected sound of Dave’s voice before glancing over his shoulder. “No.”

     “Wanna switch?”

     Aaron lingered near the window before drawing away from it and facing the bed. “I’ll spare you the pain of that chair. I think I may already be doomed.”

     Dave smiled but then nodded his head down toward the empty space on the bed next to him. “Plenty of room.”

     Aaron’s eyes hung on Dave a second longer than he was used to before suddenly looking toward the door as if he expected someone to burst through it and catch them doing… what, exactly? Then, wordlessly, Aaron walked over to the chair and grabbed his pillow and joined Dave in the bed. A sigh of relief left him as soon as his back hit the soft mattress and Dave laughed.

     “You were acting like I had asked you to rob a bank with me,” Dave said as he rolled over so that his back was to Aaron.

     He heard the sound of Aaron’s head turned toward him swiftly, his hair making a swiping noise against the pillowcase. “I’m sorry,” he said with a breathy laugh, and then more seriously, “It’s not you...”

     “If I had a dollar for every time I heard that,” Dave mused.

     Aaron let out a snort of laughter and nudged Dave’s back with his elbow. A few beats of silence passed before he spoke. “I have a sneaking suspicion that Reid and Morgan won’t go to bed at a reasonable time.”

     Dave rolled back over onto his back and put his hands behind his head. “I’d lay money on it.”

     Aaron’s hands were folded over his stomach and Dave felt an elbow brush up against his side softly and then pull away. “Like teenagers,” he said. Dave could hear the smile in his voice.

     A smile of his own crept across his face. “I agree.” He felt the elbow at his side again and this time it stayed there. He pulled his arms out from behind his head to fold them over his stomach just like Aaron and used the opportunity to subtly inch just a little bit closer. Once he settled again, their arms touching, Dave silently revelled in his Sinatra-like smoothness.

     Soon, after a few quiet minutes of lying on their backs, staring at the ceiling as if they could see stars, they fell asleep. And maybe Dave had gotten too used to having a woman as his only bed mate because by the early morning light he had draped his arm over Aaron whose back was pressed awfully close to him. Dave carefully removed his arm and tried to quietly roll off the bed to make his way to the bathroom. As soon as he stood up Aaron rolled over, looked at him, and yawned.

     “I don’t think I mind robbing banks after all.”

     Dave blinked as his head tilted slightly to the right, confused, but then he recalled his own comment made earlier. “Ah, well, I’ve been told that I can be quite persuasive.”

     Aaron rolled his eyes and smiled. Dave Rossi sure had his own brand of corny remarks, and as if the eye-roll wasn’t enough, Aaron chucked a pillow at him.

     “Oh, that was mature.”

     In the still grey of the morning, the team gathered in the lobby. Derek griped to the girls about the hokey sci-fi film that Spencer “made” him stay up to watch. They ended up not going to sleep until three-ish, as Dave and Aaron suspected, and the bags under Spencer’s eyes and Derek’s mild grumpiness were the consequences.

     “I couldn’t fall asleep because Morgan kept threatening that I would be subjected to a severe pranking if I was the first to fall asleep,” Spencer said, somehow managing to have a slightly confused furrow to his brow while also sporting a boyish grin on his lips.

     Dave and Aaron just looked on with smiles akin to those that proud parents often have. They were both still exhausted and not unaware of the fact that just a good night’s sleep wouldn’t cure that, but nevertheless they were happy. For now. Together, the team stepped out into the light rain, the remainder of last night’s storm, and headed to the plane. Virginia bound once again.

    _“There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.” — Homer, The Odyssey_


End file.
